[orca-list] apps inaccessible when run as root. What to do?

[kendell clark <coffeekingms gmail com>]

hi all
I've just become a manjaro packager. To that end, I'd like to get the
longstanding problem of apps being inaccessible when run as root in
desktops other than gnome shell fixed . Joanie, luke, do you guys have
any idea what might be causing it? The mate people are stumped, and all
us blind people can do is spin our wheels. The manjaro people want to
help me solve it but I need something to tell them. If you execute sudo
-E before the app is launched, it's accessible, which leads me to think
something in the environment isn't getting copied over or sent over when
changing the user to root, no matter how that's done (su, sudo,
policykit). Gnome shell somehow gets around this, as does unity. What do
they do and how can I get other desktops to do the same? I thought it
might've been something in gtk3 but it can't just be that, because
mate's in the process of porting over to gtk3 but apps are still
inaccessible when run as root. What prompted all of this is that manjaro
is switching over to a new installer, called calamares. It's a distro
independent, qt based installer, but I've had a hell of a time getting
orca to see the window, let alone read anything. I finally get the
calamares devs to change calamares to run via policy kit, hoping that
would fix it but it didn't.  I think this might be a combination of apps
being inaccessible when run as root and bugs in calamares itself. I'd
like to fix apps so that when they are run as root they just work. Then
I can focus on calamares. Where should I start? What's at fault so I can
file the bugs and help the developers?  No windows or osx comparisons
please, I'm trying to fix a linux bug, not get into yet another argument
over which OS is best.
Thanks
Kendell Clark